It took nearly five years, but Dana Pechin's killer was brought to justice Friday when a Boulder County jury found her boyfriend George Ruibal guilty of second-degree murder.

The jurors returned the guilty verdict after about seven hours of deliberation over two days.

As District Judge Thomas Mulvahill read the verdict and polled the jury, Ruibal showed little reaction or emotion.

Ruibal was immediately remanded into custody and is due for to be sentenced Jan. 10. He could serve 16 to 48 years in prison.

For Pechin's family, it was an end to a long road to closure in her 2007 death. Ruibal always was a person of interest in the case, but he was not charged until April 2011, after a Boulder County grand jury issued a five-page indictment.

Joie Siegrist, Pechin's niece, said hearing the verdict brought a sense of relief.

"I feel like Dana has finally gotten justice, that justice was served," she said.

Prosecutors say Ruibal badly beat Pechin in the small Longmont apartment the couple had just rented in December 2007, and then took care of her until she succumbed to her injuries.

Ruibal called police to report that he and a co-worker, who had given him a ride home, found Pechin dead under a blanket on the couch. Her injuries were so severe that police initially suspected she had been in an automobile accident.

But about a month after she died, the Boulder County coroner ruled Pechin's death a homicide and determined her cause of death was a closed head injury associated with manual strangulation.

Ruibal's attorney argued Pechin sustained the injuries at the hands of a stranger outside the apartment before heading back, and even presented an alternate suspect.

But prosecutors said Ruibal and Pechin had a history of domestic violence and that had boiled over in the days before her death.

Siegrist said going through the two-week-long trial was hard for their family, but that it was worth it to bring closure.

"It means that Dana did have a voice here," she said. "It sends a message that this kind of thing is not OK. In some way, maybe this case and this trial will help someone else headed down the path Dana was."

Siegrist also thanked the people who worked on her aunt's case. The case was taken to the grand jury after a statewide cold-case task force and an outside police agency reviewed the Longmont Police Department's investigation.

"I want to thank the Longmont Police Department, all of the detectives, the investigators and the prosecutors that were involved in bringing Mr. Ruibal to justice," she said. "It can't happen without all of them. The family has nothing but appreciation, respect and thankfulness for all of them."

Assistant District Attorney Ryan Brackley said Pechin's family also deserved credit for never giving up on the case.

"We were impressed with the insistence of Dana Pechin's family that justice be done in this case and the persistence of the Longmont Police Department in making sure that this case was thoroughly investigated and presented to the DA's office and prosecuted.

"We are proud of the work of the team from the DA's office on this case and thankful for the hard work of the Boulder County jury."

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